[Editorial] to Legal Ethics v16(1)

This issue of Legal Ethics shows how broad and deep the field has become. It is now virtually impossible to do any scholarly work in applied ethics and escape the central importance of education to the ethical development of individuals and institutions, and this is underlined by the current issue's collection of articles

Social justice on the margins: the future of the not for profit sector as providers of legal advice in England and Wales

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO) has been described by many commentators as a dramatic curtailment of access to justice which is likely to impact disproportionately on marginalised groups and individuals. This paper seeks to set LASPO in its historical context - as a radical development, but nevertheless one that is consistent with the policy discourses of responsibilization and consumerism dominant from the 1990s. It uses research into the experience of the Not For Profit sector’s involvement in legally aided welfare advice to frame this perspective. Key findings include the extent to which respondents (both managers and front line workers) felt that Legal Services Commission funding had transformed organizational practices and ethos but that the implementation of LASPO and the austerity programme represented a critical watershed for the sector and its capacity to fulfil what front line workers in particular felt was their ‘mission’

The 'Social Magic' of Merit: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the English and Welsh Legal Profession

This working paper contributes to the debate over diversity and inclusion in the legal profession by exploring the meaning of 'merit' and its social and cultural context

A qualitative evaluation of non-educational barriers to the elite professions: June 2015

This report sets out the findings from a qualitative study, focusing on two main areas. The first (Study A) examines the barriers to entry for people from less privileged socioeconomic backgrounds to elite law and accountancy firms, with a particular focus on London. The second (Study B) examines the barriers to entry for people from similar backgrounds to elite financial service firms (inclu ding accountancy) located in Scotland

Training and Regulating those providing Publicly Funded Legal Advice Services A Case Study of Civil Provision

This report summarises the results of a two year project funded by the Ministry of Justice, evaluating the impact of regulatory and training regimes on the front line experiences of solicitors and advice agency staff involved in the delivery of publicly funded legal advice. The findings shed light on the impact of contractual regulation on the organization and objectives of private firms and voluntary organizations, and rpovide insight into the nature of work-based learning

Colonizing law for the poor: reconfiguring legal advice in the new regulatory state

The chapter explores some of the tensions in New Labour rhetoric and policy in the area of legal aid. Despite the adoption of a rhetoric of increasing access to justice, policy in this area became incraeasingly dominated by cost containment and a discourse of undeserving litigants, eroding some of the key founding principles of legal aid